James F. Crow

From Philosopedia

James Franklin Crow (18 January 1916 – 4 January 2012)

Crow was Professor Emeritus of Genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Contents 1 Early Life 2 Marriage 3 Membership 4 Philosophy 5 Junk DNA 6 Selected Works 7 Death 8 Obituaries

Early Life

Crow was born in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, the son of a Ursinus College biology teacher. His family moved to Wichita, Kansas, where he grew up. He earned his Bachelor's at Friends University and in 1941 his Ph D. in genetics at the University of Texas. After teaching seven years at Dartmouth College, he moved to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he stayed until the end of his career.

Marriage

He met his future wife, Ann Crockett Crow who died in 2001, at the University of Texas, where he played viola and she played clarinet in the student orchestra. For years, he played viola with the Madison Symphony Orchestra. The Crows had a son (Franklin) and two daughters (Laura Crow and Catherine Rasmussen).

Membership

Crow was

a Fellow of the Royal Society of London

a Fellow of the Japan Academy

a member of the American Philosophical Society

a member of the World Academy of Art and Sciences

a member of the National Academy of Medicine, and

a member of the National Academhy of Sciences.

Philosophy

In 2010 at the annual national convention of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), Crowe was an honorred speaker who said he neither believed in gods, devils, nor "intelligent design."

"I want to say a little bit about evolution and religious belief," he continued. "My main personal reason for nonbelief is: Why would an all-powerful and espeially benevolent creator permit so much sin and suffering? Most evolutionists are nonbelievers but they all aren't. My favorite quotation on this subject, and often he is very quotable, is from Bertrand Russell. He was asked one time, 'Bertie, suppose that you're totally wrong about this? Suppose you die and there really is a God and you're taken up to the Pearly Gates, what would you say?' Russell answered instantly, 'I would say, 'God, why didn't you give us better evidence?' "

"Well, let me finally end this tirade, this screed, by asking do you need to be a er to study evolution? Of course not! There are religious people who study evolution. I don't think there's anyone among them, though, who takes the Old Testament literally. For myself, I believe you don't have to be a nonbeliever to be an evolutionist, but I think it helps."

Junk DNA

Jack Clontz, the author of such treatises as "Heiddegger’s interpretation of the role of transcendental imagination in Kant’s critique of pure reason," is an activist member of the Bertrand Russell Society. Of Crow, he has called attention to

James F. Crow's role in "junk DNA," especially in view of his work with the great Japanese population geneticist Motoo Kimura (木村 資生, KIMURA MOTOO in East Asian style) of great importance in the history of molecular genetics and thus the theory of evolution. See Crow, J. F (1979). "Genes that violate Mendel's rules." Sci. Am. 240, 134-146, and of course the population genetics Crow did Kimura when they were working together at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (as I recall).

It has been argued that the vast majority of the genes in any genome are the result of genetic drift and not the product of natural selection, the sole agent of evolutionary change according to "Darwinian fundamentalists" such as Richard Dawkins and Daniel C. Dennett. However, Kimura held that the "junk" (more formally, "neutral") theory and natural selection were compatible, as do most specialists nowadays. At one point, it was also thought that "junk DNA" could be construed as useful in arguing against "fine tuning" in the argument from design. However, as especially early on argued by BRS award winner, Stephen J. Gould, "junk" DNA can be sometimes used in the course of the further development of genomes. I had discussed some of this on the LLL in connection with the Anthony Flew case, but go no substantive responses and yet some quite extraordinary insults by a List member who knew nothing of what I was saying. But that was "the bad old days."

It is very unfortunate that there seems to be no English translation of Kimura's famous popularization of his work in Japan, a major best seller in Japan. This is shocking. Kimura was one of the great figures in the history of modern biology, as stressed by Crow.

Selected Works

Crow, J. F. (2010). "Wright and Fisher on Inbreeding and Random Drift". Genetics 184 (3): 609–611. doi:10.1534/genetics.109.110023. PMC 2845331. PMID 20332416. edit

Crow, J. F. (2010). "On epistasis: Why it is unimportant in polygenic directional selection". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 365 (1544): 1241. doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0275. edit'

Crow, J. F. (2009). "Mayr, mathematics and the study of evolution". Journal of Biology 8 (2): 13. doi:10.1186/jbiol117. PMC 2687772. PMID 19291256. edit

Crow, J. F. (2008). "Maintaining evolvability". Journal of genetics 87 (4): 349–353. PMID 19147924. edit

Crow, J. F. (2008). "Just and Unjust: E. E. Just (1883-1941)". Genetics 179 (4): 1735–1740. doi:10.1534/genetics.104.94094. PMC 2516054. PMID 18711217. edit

Crow, J. F. (2008). "Mid-Century Controversies in Population Genetics". Annual Review of Genetics 42: 1–16. doi:10.1146/annurev.genet.42.110807.091612. PMID 18652542. edit

Crow, J. F. (2008). "Commentary: Haldane and beanbag genetics". International Journal of Epidemiology 37 (3): 442–445. doi:10.1093/ije/dyn048. PMID 18522983. edit

Crow, J. F. (2007). "Haldane, Bailey, Taylor and recombinant-inbred lines". Genetics 176 (2): 729–732. PMC 1894602. PMID 17579238. edit

Gulisija, D.; Crow, J. F. (2007). "Inferring Purging from Pedigree Data". Evolution 61 (5): 1043–1051. doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.2007.00088.x. PMID 17492959. edit

Crow, J. F.; Lindsley, D.; Lucchesi, J. (2006). "Edward Novitski: Drosophila Virtuoso". Genetics 174 (2): 549–553. doi:10.1534/genetics.104.65953. PMC 1602066. PMID 17068121. edit

Crow, J. F. (2006). "H. J. Muller and the "competition hoax"". Genetics 173 (2): 511–514. PMC 1526522. PMID 16790582. edit

Crow, J.F. 2006. Motoo Kimura, 1924-1994. Handbook of Philosophy of Biology.

Crow, J.F. 2006. Sewall Wright, 1889-1988. Handbook of Philosophy of Biology.

Crow, J. F. (2005). "Hermann Joseph Muller, Evolutionist". Nature Reviews Genetics 6 (12): 941–945. doi:10.1038/nrg1728. PMID 16341074. edit

Crow, J. F. (2006). "Age and sex effects on human mutation rates: An old problem with new complexities". Journal of radiation research 47 Suppl B: B75–B82. PMID 17019055. edit

Crow, J. F.; Bender, W. (2004). "Edward B. Lewis, 1918-2004". Genetics 168 (4): 1773–1783. PMC 1448758. PMID 15611154. edit

Crow, J.F. 2004. Assessing population subdivision. In Evolutionary Theory and Processes: Modern Horizons. Ed. by S.P. Wasser. Pp. 35-42. Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Crow, J. F. (2003). "Was there life before 1953?". Nature Genetics 33 (4): 449–450. doi:10.1038/ng0403-449. PMID 12665867. edit

Garcia-Dorado, A.; Caballero, A.; Crow, J. F. (2003). "On the Persistence and Pervasiveness of a New Mutation". Evolution 57 (11): 2644–2646. doi:10.1111/j.0014-3820.2003.tb01507.x. PMID 14686539. edit

Crow, J. F. 2002. Unequal by nature: a geneticist’s perspective on human differences. Dedalus Winter 2002:81-88.

Death

At the age of 95, Crow died of congestive heart failure at Capitol Lakes Retirement Community in Madison, Wisconsin.

A former student, Martin LaBar, who served as an instructor while a graduate student, recalled the following:

Although he was an important person, he was humble, easily reachable, and sometimes serving as the butt of practical jokes. For example, some of his students etherized some fruit flies and put them in his viola, and, during a concert by the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the flies revived and flew out of the instrument.

Obituaries

Genetics.

"The Well-Tempered Ear" concerning a 10 January 2012 memorial.)

The New York Times Obituary.)